J&K has over 78,000 ration cards with duplicate member entries

Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Sept 22: There are over 78, 000 ration cards registered across Jammu and Kashmir that are having the entries of member(s) registered at two different places, prompting the authorities to initiate the process of blocking such ration cards to rectify the details of the family members.
As per figures accessed by Excelsior, there are 78,272 such ration cards across J&K with Jammu Rural having the highest number of such ration cards that are having the entries of the family members at two different places.
In the Kashmir division, there are over 15000 such ration cards with district Srinagar having the highest numbers and Kulgam having the lowest. As per figures available, district Anantnag is having 598 such ration cards that have been identified, Bandipora 249, Baramulla 2869, Budgam 108, Ganderbal 129, Kulgam 76, Kupwara 4003, Pulwama 393, Shopian 111 and Srinagar 7349.
In the Jammu division, the number of such ration cards is higher as there have been so far over 62,000 ration cards detected with duplicate entries of the family member(s) and two different places.
As per figures, in the Jammu division, Doda has 3809 such ration cards, Jammu Circle-1 has 2209, Jammu Circle-2 is having 4266 such ration cards, Jammu Circle-3 3153, Jammu Rural 16253, Kathua 4313, Kishtwar 3556, Poonch 10164, Rajouri 7171, Ramban 285, Reasi 1918, Samba 731 and Udhampur 4577 ration cards.
As per officials, these many ration cards have been detected to have duplicate entries of their family member(s) at two places while the process of blocking such cards has been started and is currently ongoing.
“The process of rectifying the details of the ration cards is carried out in a way that both the cards where a particular family member has been registered are blocked, and then the consumer is directed to state the facts and it is made sure that entry of a particular member is kept at one single place only,” an official privy to the developments told EXCELSIOR.
While detailing more on it, the official said that these are cases majorly of daughters who have been married off, but their entries have not been truncated from the ration cards of their families, leading to duplicate entries at more than one place.
“Also, there are cases, say, for example, a person originally from Budgam and has now shifted to Srinagar, he is there and the ration card registered in his home district and he has managed to get another one in Srinagar. Such entries also are duplication and are being deleted,” the officials said.
However, the people whose ration cards have been blocked are alleging that they are being denied ration and the department is telling them that their ration cards will be restored within 45 days which they said is “injustice”.
Director, Department of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs, Dr Abdul Salam Wani confirmed that the department has initiated the process of deleting such entries found at more than one place and the same is being completed. “We are now making sure that the details are corrected for which the process is on and shall be completed soon,” he said.